Why religious moderates offend me. (Rant. Language warning.)

I hate hypocrisy. More than anything. Seriously.
My personal rule in life is don't be a dick (subjective to the golden rule) and don't be a hypocrite. That's it. Pretty much a perfect circle of decent humanity, right?
That's why I fucking despise religious moderates.
I mean, what's the point, really? Do you believe that crap, or don't you?
Either the Bible/Koran/Whatever is perfect and written by god, or it isn't. There is no middle ground. A god that is capable of mistakes isn't a god. If a holy book has errors, then it means the deity is not omnipotent. A 'real' god could prevent translation errors. A 'real' god could prevent incorrect human editing.
So either you buy into the laws and the consequences for breaking them, or you don't. Pick a side, please?
Now, if you claim to follow a god of love or whatever, then sure, he'll forgive you for some sins, right? But the things that are explicitly outlined, like divorce and remarriage are considered ongoing sins. Every day you stay remarried, you are committing adultery. If you kill yourself, if you die while being an active homosexual...ect.
See, I think the Amish are on to something. At least these guys have dedication. At least they walk the walk as well as talk the talk. These guys have earned my respect.
Jews that say "I just participate in holidays to keep ties with my heritage, not because I believe in that pish" are also just fine by me. Catholics that don't believe but feel comfort in the ritual? Fine. As long as the admit the truth.
It's the half-assed American Bible Belt fatties that drive me nuts. Either follow the Bible, follow the Koran or shut the fuck up.
Quit twisting things. Quit making excuses. Either back up your belief by committing your life to the full scale Biblical outline, or take off the stupid silver crucifix earrings.
Please don't say you are "A born again Christian" if you've never read the entire New Testament.
If you don't know the rules expected of you, you obviously aren't following them. These aren't exactly common sense outlines, you know. They were written by goat herders a few thousand years back, and a lot of the policies don't quite fit into modern life so easily. If you are a "Christian" then you'll stand out. There is no such thing as incognito Christianity if you are actually following the laws set down for you.
And if you aren't? And if you don't know them? Then please quit clinging to a false title. It just makes you look pathetic.
Can't you get friends without being part of some super club?

Replies to This Discussion

I could not agree more. I moved to rural central Texas two years ago after spending most of my life in New England, and have been continually shocked at the plethora of illogical, contradictory, and moronic convictions that I hear on a daily basis. Back home, I had heard about evangelical antics but took most of it to be exaggerated parody. Oh, was I wrong.

I am currently finishing my associate's degree (for academic transfer with a focus on literature) at a local public junior college. I may as well be attending a Christian school for the shameless promotion of Protestant Christianity inherent in most lectures that I attend. The lessons are often taught from the Christian viewpoint to the Christian viewpoint, with many of the teachers' statements beginning with "We Christians" or "Just like Jesus" or some other phrase tying the curriculum to Christianity.

Of course, only the positive aspects of Christianity are referenced. "We" believe in a god of love, and unending forgiveness, and loving acceptance; therefore, we must examine the biblical parallels in every single piece of literature written in the English language. (Although both early British and American writings were typically religious in nature, I do not see why we cannot objectively discuss the texts without getting our panties wet every time we see a biblical reference.) I sit and seethe as I long to refute this perfect little ideal of innocous Christianity.

The few times that I actually work up the gumption to confront someone, I have asked people of their feelings on the book of Leviticus. Usually, they think that I am referring to the condemnation of homosexuals. While I do find these passages offensive, I am beyond outraged at the trash in Leviticus 21:17-24. My animosity is personal as one of my loved ones has a uncurable degenerative neuromuscular condition which will significantly shorten his life. As if his life does not contain enough needless suffering, apparently his mere presence would profane and offend the omnibenevolent and accepting god.

Of course, if that passage is mentioned, then moderate Christians are quick to excuse it away with some bullshit and insist that THAT part of the bible isn't what they were talking about. I never underestimate the power of convenient relativism in rendering a bitter absolute more palpable.

A lovely rant, Misty. I do have one minor nit to pick, though. Where you say A god that is capable of mistakes isn't a god., I think that what you mean is that a god that is capable of mistakes is not the god they are claiming exists. Zeus sure made plenty of mistakes. Thor, Susono, and many others all messed up. It's the perfect, infallible gods that can't exist if they've made a mistake.

But don't you know? The Holy Spirit guides you as to which verses are correct and which aren't! Just because Fred Phelps has just as good an argument that the Holy Spirit guides him as anyone else does, doesn't mean he's right! Only the happy parts of the Bible are really from Jesus!

I just attempted to have this discussion with some Christians recently. 1. They refused to understand what my actual argument was and kept attacking straw men and 2. refused to acknowledge that they could be wrong about which parts of the Bible to follow if they're cherry picking. Because the Holy Spirit guides them. I wouldn't even find it so annoying if they didn't then try to tell other people that they're wrong about God. If you just decided to follow certain parts of the Bible because you felt like it, fine, great, good for you. But don't even try to claim that you are right and someone else is wrong - which we know every Christian does. But what authority does anyone have to back that up if they don't have a book straight from God?

Zero.

So I'm wondering, has every Christian up to the modern "Jesus loves me, not all the Bible is right" era been completely wrong and worshiping the wrong God? Why they think that they can ignore the most basic tenets of their religion just because it doesn't fit our society any more, while continuing to claim they are Christians I have no idea. That's just not Christianity.

People that read their holy book and then drive planes into buildings are listening to the Spirit.
Men that place pipe bombs in Planned Parenthood clinics are, too.
If this Spirit is actually talking to anyone, then it is obviously sending different messages to different people, because if it wasn't, then everyone would hear the same thing and there wouldn't be multiple 'understandings' of text.